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Lot Essay
Long Chin-san's composite photographs are the representative works of his artistic career. These images, created from a collage of various negatives, reflect the creative individuality of the artist, who was the first Chinese artist to have combined elements of Chinese painting with photographic techniques. Such an approach reveals Long's full understanding and practiced grasp of both art forms. The compositions of Long's work reminds of ink landscape paintings of the ancient masters, from whom he endeavored to capture their particular styles and moods.
Long's Photo Album (Lot 1366) was a gift presented to his best friend, Mr. Qing Quan, to celebrate his ninety seventh birthday. The album perfectly illustrates the essence of Long's creative ideals. Long once said, "Chinese calligraphy and painting are similar to photography in that all are done on a flat surface. In taking a straight picture, one has to compose it very carefully. This is very much like what the Chinese calligrapher does with his pen or the painter with his brush. For all three, composition is the first thing they must attend to. However, by using the composite technique, or montage as it is called in the West, one can rearrange the different elements to produce an ideal picture by eliminating what is unessential. To the uninitiated, a still life may appear to be dull. But any one who has ever dabbled in that genre will soon find that it is really one of the most challenging, as it can be made to convey ideas and images as seen in the mind's eye of the photographer." This album not only portrays the magnificent sceneries of mountain and water splendidly, but also presents the theme of bird-and-flower vividly, marked with an aesthetic taste of the literati. This rare collection not only carries memorial significance of the artist, but also features many highlights of his works, making it a work of great research value. In Fish Village, Taipei; Calligraphy (Lot 1367), Long expresses a lofty, leisurely mood through his brush in the famous Zen couplet. The scene of the fishing village, rich in composition and pictorial depth, also reflect Long's yearning for the simple, leisurely life of the villagers, and a love of nature. Liken to the literati spirit, Long demonstrates in his distinct artistic vocabulary of photography his insight into Chinese traditional landscapes and his way of reinvigorating and reinterpreting conventional art forms.
Long's Photo Album (Lot 1366) was a gift presented to his best friend, Mr. Qing Quan, to celebrate his ninety seventh birthday. The album perfectly illustrates the essence of Long's creative ideals. Long once said, "Chinese calligraphy and painting are similar to photography in that all are done on a flat surface. In taking a straight picture, one has to compose it very carefully. This is very much like what the Chinese calligrapher does with his pen or the painter with his brush. For all three, composition is the first thing they must attend to. However, by using the composite technique, or montage as it is called in the West, one can rearrange the different elements to produce an ideal picture by eliminating what is unessential. To the uninitiated, a still life may appear to be dull. But any one who has ever dabbled in that genre will soon find that it is really one of the most challenging, as it can be made to convey ideas and images as seen in the mind's eye of the photographer." This album not only portrays the magnificent sceneries of mountain and water splendidly, but also presents the theme of bird-and-flower vividly, marked with an aesthetic taste of the literati. This rare collection not only carries memorial significance of the artist, but also features many highlights of his works, making it a work of great research value. In Fish Village, Taipei; Calligraphy (Lot 1367), Long expresses a lofty, leisurely mood through his brush in the famous Zen couplet. The scene of the fishing village, rich in composition and pictorial depth, also reflect Long's yearning for the simple, leisurely life of the villagers, and a love of nature. Liken to the literati spirit, Long demonstrates in his distinct artistic vocabulary of photography his insight into Chinese traditional landscapes and his way of reinvigorating and reinterpreting conventional art forms.